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With continuous innovations in Solar technologies and falling solar panel prices, solar energy is emerging as a popular alternative to traditional non renewable energy.

Variety of industrial consumers have realised the advantages of going for solar energy and have started opting for solar but it's not possible for some to go completely solar due to limitations like space, availability of solar and technological issues. A large number of industries have complex hybrid installations which are a combination of multiple power resources like solar, grid, DG or wind. For such complex installations efficient synchronisation of various power resources and optimum utilisation becomes a priority. Arresting reverse power flow to the grid, optimum utilisation in accordance with the spin reverse rating of diesel generator(DG), optimum generation of solar power are key factors to be considered during configuration of such complex installations.

For such situations Sileaf has developed a smart controller (SolGriD) that can be installed at power plants of various capacities. SolGriD is a revolutionary product that has multiple features including synchronisation of different power sources, Reverse power controlling, Real lime monitoring of system parameters , weather monitoring and performance calculations etc.

The product has an Inbuilt functionality to monitor Grid vs Solar consumption and Linear inverter output control to leverage maximum generation of solar power.It takes care of optimisation of DG utilisation to save the cost of diesel and ensure optimum generation of solar power. It can work with upto four diesel generators with no limit on DG capacity, grid power, batteries and solar power. SolGriD regulates the generation of solar power in accordance with load at that time and the specified minimum rating of DG set. It Can communicate with all major Inverter and MFM (multifunction meter) mode and can control 3 different Inverter models at a time.

The product continuously monitors solar, grid and load parameters and ensures that the power doesn't flow to into the grid when net metering is not available. The response and corrective action takes less than a minute and it can help bring down the consumption from gird to as low as 1% of the load. It also works as data logger and remote monitoring system that can be accessed through internet and provides graphical representation of different parameters. In case customers are not able to access the data logger interface they can opt for SMS & email alerts of the daily generation and failures.

The Weather interface is inbuilt and provides measurement of radiation, temperature and comparison with the generation. Sileaf’s service network across India provides Local support for the product whenever necessary. The product has had Zero failures in last 30 months with more than 100 devices installed in India.

• Continuous monitoring of load and taking corrective action on power from solar power system. Response and corrective action in less than one minute • Ensures the power does not flow into the grid when net-metering is not available

3. Real time remote monitoring of system parameters

a) Access through internet

b) Graphical presentation

4. Alerts

a) For information

b) For corrective action

5. Weather monitoring

a) Measurement of radiation, temperature and comparison with the generation

There are two main functions of SolGriD when used with Diesel Generator:

1. To synchronise the solar system with Diesel Generator by maintaining the Spinning reserve of DG at about 25-30% when the load is less.

2. To protect DG from excess solar power.

Spinning reserve of DG is very important in order to maintain the DG parameters and the specific range. It is also required to avoid the heating of DG components. If the spinning reserve is not maintained then there will be fluctuations in voltage and frequency of DG and it may damage the parts in the load. Also self-heating may reduce the life of DG.There is also a need to control reverse feeding of excess generated power into DG. If reverse power is fed , it will trip the DG initially and if not controlled for a long time it may also damage the DG. In order to avoid all these damages to the load, DG parts and to operate the solar system with DG without any troubles, SolGriD plays an vital role. This is a one stop solution for all the problems.

Remote Monitoring and alerts

SolGriD continuously monitors customers load, solar generation and DG power and also at the same time uploads this data on the internet. Hence it is possible to monitor the complete data set remotely form anywhere, anytime when internet connection is available. In this data monitoring you can check various parameters like kW, kWh, Power factor, daily generation, total generation, voltage, current, etc. with daily messages and mails of generation data. Also download of the same is possible whenever required.So this will help a lot to keep in touch with the system when we are at remote location.

Applications

The product has application in multiple industries and areas where multiple power sources are used and It can be used for monitoring of any solar system. Some applications include

• Monitoring of Off Grid solar power plants (Hospital, Petrol pumps) • Monitoring for On grid/Rooftop solar power plants• Grid export control for On grid/Rooftop solar power plants• DG synchronisation for OnGrid/Rooftop solar power plants • UPS synchronisation for OnGrid/Rooftop solar power plants